"I haven't slept in six days," said head of wardrobe, Josh Service, who is holding down a day job in addition to the overnight shoots at Townsville Airport.

"[But] it is our passion. We go home and we couldn't be prouder of the product that we have produced."

Josh is one of three people dressing the 150 cast members of the film Departure Lounge, a romantic musical conceived by the team behind the films Beneath Hill 60 and Waltzing Matilda.

Costumes range from airport security uniforms to airline staff and FIFO miners, with characters adopting Bollywood-style Indian outfits for the musical numbers.

Choreographers from musical group Rhythms Bhangra have assisted the costume department with sourcing and creating authentic Indian costumes and matching them with the colour palette for each character.

"We have had to correlate their day character to a heightened sense for the Bollywood scene, so it is pretty much the same outfit - Bollywood-ified," said Josh.

The wardrobe team assembled the costumes in just ten days and each night dress about 75 people.

The film crew can only access the airport after commercial flights finish for the day, so shooting has been nocturnal and crammed into a single week.

"It is definitely a lot more fast paced (than a feature film)," said Josh.

"We have had a shorter time to get things done but we have had a lot more to do in that time."

Head of wardrobe, Josh Service, dresses airline hostess Judy Higgins. "I love the fact that I can create something of beauty that somebody else can wear... and I love the fact that we have the ability to create any character from scratch," he said.
(Nathalie Fernbach - ABC )